About 40 teachers from 15 countries gathered for the ‘Seminar on Didactics of Strategic Games’ at Cambridge University, sharing their expertise on teaching Go, chess and other games at schools. A variety of relevant topics were covered such as learning psychology, teaching methods & materials, business models of educational programs, marketing and research. For example, Prof. Barry Hymer (University of Cumbria in Lancaster) introduced new studies on learners’ mindsets, and their implications on teaching methods. Alessandro Dominici talked about his Chess teaching project and how he managed to apply successfully for ERASMUS funds. Rita Atkins addressed important issues related to accrediting chess teachers. Paul Barchilon from the American Go Foundation (AGF) presented their great work of supporting Go teachers in the US, as well as his own experiences as a very enthusiastic Go teacher and American Go Association (AGA) organiser of youth activities for years.

The beautiful rooms of Cambridge University provided a wonderful environment for these two days of learning, teaching, discussing, inspiration and forming cooperations. The success of this seminar proves once more that chess and Go teachers shouldn’t see each other as rivals but as colleagues who have a lot in common. By sharing our experiences we can learn from each other, improve teaching praxis and develop more successful educational programs at schools in the future.

Many thanks to the main organizers John Foley, Stefan Loeffler, Rita Atkins and John Upham from chessplus for their initiative and excellent work to plan and organize this event. Especially the technical support was very impressive, allowing the participants to follow the presentation slides on their own device and send questions and remarks during the presentations. The seminar was sponsored by DeepMind, and supported by the British Go Association, the European Go Federation, the European Go Cultural Centre, the American Go Foundation and the UK Backgammon Federation. Documentation of the seminar with presentation files.